MARCH 2022 REPORT
Congratulations to me… I’m finally getting around to modernizing my website. It's been a long time coming. The old one was not viewable on mobile devices and I know how much we all love our precious phones. Lots of stuff to report so let's get it started...
We got the band back together!! Yes, Ross, Scott and I reformed the Dictators I never thought I would do it but life takes many twists and turns, unfortunately Scott Kempner had to bow out due to illness. I miss his contribution terribly but the new members Keith Roth and cowbell virtuoso Albert Bouchard have filled his shoes admirably. We have released three songs and videos and we are working on a full album.
Side projects, side projects, side projects! I love side projects!! I had a ball recording 4 songs with my Master Plan compatriots Keith Streng, Paul Johnson and Bill Milheizer. We have 4 songs in the cam. Stay tuned for release details.
Early on in the pandemic I was looking for projects to work on and I remembered an unfinished song I had called Born Hungry. It’s a song about one of my favorite subjects... food. So I called in my buddy world famous gourmand and chef extraordinaire Ric Orlando to sing it and the results are spectacular!
We call ourselves The Huckleberries and I was thrilled to see Outlaw Country add it to their playlist because I am a genre crossing m-fucker!!!
Ivan Julian is one of the best guitarists to come out of the CBGB's scene. A new movie examines his career and successful cancer battle. I appear as talking head, you can check out You Don't Know Ivan Julian on Amazon.
Many of you know my previous incarnation as a rock writer. I had my own fanzine but also wrote a few articles for Creem magazine, so I was thrilled when the director of Boy Howdy, The Story of Creem Magazine asked to use 2 songs for his film. Yes, yes a million times yes! A great movie about a special time. Listen for “What It Is” by The Dictators and “Forever My Baby” by The Dahlmans which runs over the final credits. The movie is available to watch on Amazon Prime, you can watch it here.
This is a great interview with me on Please Kill Me... over 10,000 shares on Facebook! Wow, somebody cares!
I know oddly squat about video games but I love it when they us my music in one... anybody ever play The Crew 2? Listen for my song “Jump Back Jack.”
That's all folks... stay healthy. Everyday you make music is a good day!
Andy
2019 Round Up
2019’s been a wild and crazy year… I got married, I left my beloved New York City and I made a beaucoup of music… not bad for an alta cocker!
The big news is I start recording in January, for a very exciting project with two of my oldest musical friends named Scott and Ross… so stay tuned!
I’m also very happy to announce that my tune, My Imaginary Friend was chosen as the Coolest Song of the Week on Little Steven’s Underground Garage in November. That makes the eighth time a song I either wrote or produced has been granted that distinction. Go me!!! Thanks to Steve Van Zandt and the LSUG team for keeping loud guitars and the spirit of rock and roll alive.
Hear my interview with DJ Mighty Manfred on the “Underground Garage Coolest Conversations” Podcast available wherever you download podcasts.
Andy’s College Fund
Way back in the day, before I was a musician, I had aspirations of being a rock writer. I published a fanzine called Teenage Wasteland Gazette and contributed to numerous rock mags including the notorious Creem Magazine where I received many large paydays writing reviews.
I was flattered when two of my songs were chosen for the soundtrack of the new documentary about Creem titled Boy Howdy! The Story of Creem: America’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll Magazine… kudos to director Scott Crawford for his excellent taste.
I also made a screen appearance in the doc The Center of Nowhere about the overlooked music scene in Springfield, Missouri.
Home to the Ozark Jubilee TV show in the 50’s, the movie documents all the great musicians and songwriters that passed through that unheralded music town. I traveled there a few times to work with the my buddy Lou Whitney (RIP) at Column One studios, so thanks to director Dave Hoestra for documenting this music and included my remembrances in his movie.
Nick Tosches was an early mentor of mine. He passed away in October. Please read my obituary here.
On a personal note, I got married to the wonderful Carla Rhodes.
I also sold my NYC apartment completely cutting ties with the town where I was born and raised for the laid back lifestyle of the Hudson Valley. I couldn’t be happier as I maintain an active music life playing bass with numerous bands, recording in my home studio and playing piano. Maybe I’ll post my arrangements of Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me and Bridge Over Troubled Waters someday.
Everyday you make music is a good day!
Your pal,
Andy
RIP Nick Tosches
Nick Tosches: October 23, 1949 – October 20, 2019
I’m all torn up about the death of Nick Tosches, as Nick had an immeasurable affect on my life.
I was a college student with dreams of being a rock writer, mimeographing my fanzine Teenage Wasteland Gazette when Nick came along, encouraged me and gave me actual writing assignments. As the editor of Oui, a magazine owned by Playboy, he sent me on real, paying jobs interviewing Muddy Waters, Marc Bolan and Alice Cooper.
I felt validated that he liked my irreverent approach. But truth be told, I was influenced by him and Meltzer. Not long after, we traveled to California together on the record company dime to write about the English band Uriah Heep... I was a teenager and I finally felt like a real rock writer!
Maybe a year later, my interest in rock criticism waned, as I started creating my own rock music while Nick’s writing metamorphasized into deep, dark, dense novels and essential books on popular show biz figures. His wordplay was always too sophisticated for rock and roll anyway.
I stayed in loose contact with Nick and noticed a decline in his health in recent years. I’m not completely shocked to hear of his passing but it still feels like a knife through my heart. When I needed encouragement and a step up, Nick was there. Thanks, buddy!!
The Coolest Song in the World!
My tune “My Imaginary Friend” is the “The Coolest Song in the World This Week” on Little Steven’s Underground Garage. Listen to the song here:
SEPTEMBER 2018 REPORT
I recently did an interview with the Garagerocktopia blog, which reminded me that I was due for a website update, so here’s the latest on my musical adventures…..
Songwriters live off of their mailbox money and I got a major placement when the Showtime series Billions used my song “The Next Big Thing” to help establish the character Taylor in the opening scene of the first show of the 3rd season.
I was flattered to find out the song was hand picked by Billions producer/writer/creator (and former Elektra A&R man) Brain Koppleman. The New York Times made note and praised it as an “astute music cue”… not fake news!
We finished production on the new Walter Lure and The Waldos album and it’s finally out on Cleopatra records. You have my personal guarantee that you will find ‘Wacka Lacka Boom Bop A Loom Bam Boo’, to be a worthy follow up to the punk classics L.A.M.F and Rent Party Here’s a sample of the lead off track “Crazy Kids” which will be in the upcoming movie about the last days of Johnny Thunders.
2. Check out the new record by science fiction writer and Hawkwind/Blue Oyster Cult collaborator Michael Moorcock. It’s called the Spirits Burning project and I sang the song Dark Dominion. This was a real stretch, a much darker vocal than I’ve ever done before, good fun!
3. My buddy Jiro Okabe, owner of Mosrite Guitars approached me with an idea and asked me to collaborate with him on a scathing put-down song we called “I Don’t Wanna Be Like You”. Out soon on Mosrite Records USA!
4. There have been other covers from less well-known artists recently. I was really impressed with The Boo Devils version of Who Will Save Rock and Roll they put their own rootsy spin on it. Old school Aussie punks The Hitmen also covered Who Will Save Rock and Roll while Toni Metralla y Los Antibalas did a cool Spanish language interpretation, Quien Salvara El Rakanroll. Kryptonite another combo from Spain recorded a killer version of Haircut and Attitude . Kudos to all!!
By the way… this could be my favorite interpretation of one of my tunes ever!
5. I want to urge everybody to stop by my YouTube channel and check out all my music and travel videos. Lots of fascinating stuff and I just broke 150,000 views! … I know that is just a drop in the YouTube ocean but there is satisfaction in knowing my music videos are alive and shared internationally. Now subscribe to keep up with my new stuff, dammit!
6. Finally, I have left my hometown New York City and moved upstate to the beautiful Hudson Valley. I am enjoying my new laid-back lifestyle but don’t get it in your head that I have retired, we’ve got tons of musicians up here and I perform regularly with three local bands… Ric the Chef and the Associates is led by award-winning celebrity chef Ric Orlando who beat Bobby Flay and won twice on Chopped. I’m playing bass with Ric but I’m on guitar with Sensuous Tiger, who perform the finest soft rock hits of the 70’s. We’re at The Colony in Woodstock on September 22. You can also catch me the last Wednesday of every month at the HiLo in Catskill, NY supporting Spike Priggen. We did a set of Alex Chilton covers in August.
Remember, everyday you make music is a good day!!!
Your pal,
Adny
Summer 2017 Report
G’day! Who’s the worst self-promoter in the world? That must be me because I haven’t sent out an email or posted on my website in a long time which is why this one is jam packed with all sorts of juicy news about your best friend Andy Shernoff.
OK, let’s start with the new pop-tastic EP by Norways finest rock band The Dahlmanns. It contains two tunes I wrote, Forever My Baby, my duet with Line Dahlmann and The Last Time. Forever My Baby was chosen as “The Coolest Song In The World” on Little Stevens Underground Garage radio show which marks the sixth time a song I was involved in as writer, singer or producer was chosen “Coolest Song of The Week”…. Give a listen on Spotify or buy it from Pop Detective Records in the US and Next Big Thing Records in Europe ….and check out this guy who thinks “Andy Shernoff and The Dahlmanns = Gold.” Who am I to disagree?
Mick Rock took iconic photos of Bowie, Queen, Lou Reed and Iggy that are forever etched in our memory banks…. a new documentary about Mick entitled, Shot! the Psycho-Spiritual Mantra of Rock, recently opened in theaters and I am quite pleased that they used the song “Laugh And Walk Away” from my solo EP “Don’t Fade Away” to set the mood in the official trailer.
I have never played a video game in my life but my tune Faster and Louder made famous by my old band The Dictators made it into the new Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. I hear the game is popular with the kids and unemployed adults living in their parent’s basement!
Who doesn’t love the classic album LAMF by The Heartbreakers from the golden days of punk rock? I sure do and as producer of the new Waldos album which features Walter Lure who fronted The Heartbreakers alongside Johnny Thunders, I’m doing my best to make sure we keep that loose rock and roll spirit alive. I promise this record will sound like the glory days of 1977 when men were men and records were vinyl….The album is done and will be out on Cleopatra Records by the end of the year.
I recently closed the deal to sell my archives to Cornell University. I’m clearing out all the boxes of ephemera that I have been collecting since I was a kid. There are tons of cool and interesting music paraphernalia, books, posters, pins, video and audio. Better in an academic library than collecting dust in my storage unit. I kept a lot of the stuff that is meaningful to me and posted a few samples in my online rock and roll museum.
Finally, here are few of my recent live appearances:
On April 29 I sang a few tunes at the charity fund raiser and tribute for the great Billy Miller at The Williamsburg Music Hall. Billy the proprietor of Norton Records and vocalist for The A–Bones passed away in November after a long and courageous battle with Multiple Myeloma.
On May 2nd I did a few guest spots at the book release party for my old friend Phillipe Marcade. I highly recommend his book Punk Attitude, a glorious romp through hedonistic Manhattan in the 70’s.
And on May 19th at the Joey Ramone Birthday bash at Webster Hall, I played bass in a superstar band along with Ramones producer Ed Stasium and Blondie drummer Clem Burke. We celebrated the 40th anniversary of Leave Home and Rocket to Russia, two albums that changed the face of rock and roll… we miss you, Joey!
I’m working on a project with one of the biggest names in country music so stay tuned… and Respect the Rock!!
Your friend,
Andy
Sweet Joey
I’ve been lax on my website updates, so let’s get started with all the news that’s news to yews!
On May 19, I posted on YouTube a video tribute to celebrate Joey Ramone’s 65th birthday. I tried to give my personal take and capture the Joey I knew rather than the icon. I’m pleased to see the continued respect for his legacy, like the cover of Rolling Stone magazine 15 years after his death… share and like the clip below and subscribe to my YouTube channel!
I performed my song, Sweet Joey at the annual Joey Ramone Birthday Bash at Webster Hall on May 19th. It was wonderful to see a sold out club and so many friends from the “old days”. Stooges/Minutemen bass legend Mike Watt who played in the house band, asked me if he could borrow the bass I played on The Dictators Go Girl Crazy for the show. I was honored to oblige, Mike!
On June 25th, The Queens Museum will be holding a full day of Ramones events including live music, a flea market and film screenings. I will be doing a short talk about my experiences with the Ramones and why Queens (which is where I grew up along with members of The Ramones, the New York Dolls and Kiss), is the “borough of rock”. Stop by and say hi. More information here: www.queensmuseum.org/events/ramones-mania
In July I will be teaching a songwriting class for kids at Paul Green’s Rock Academy near Woodstock NY in the beautiful Hudson Valley. I am really looking forward to this. There are a few spots left if you want to give your kids a creative, rock and roll summer!
About 20 years ago, I produced the album Rent Party by The Waldo’s, which featured Walter Lure and other Johnny Thunders alumni. It remains one of my favorite production projects. We just started rehearsing for the second Waldos record which will be released on Cleopatra Records later in 2016. if you haven’t heard the first record, here’s a taste….
I played my first house concert on May 21st as part of Jen and Dave’s house concert series. I told a few stories and played over 20 songs, some of which I had never performed live. It was good fun and Jen and Dave were wonderful hosts. I’m looking to do more so contact me if you can host or know somebody who does.
Sonny and Cher from Hell
Praise the lord….. 2015 continues to be a super productive. Amazing, considering I’ve been making music for over 40 years!! You can check out my recent movie and TV projects here. Then catch up on what’s been happening in the recording studio….
Let’s start off with the meanest, most vitriolic break up song… EVER!! Enjoy my video collaboration with the legendary Lydia Lunch. We’re the Sonny and Cher from Hell!
I’m also thrilled to announce that Legacy Records, the catalogue division of Sony Records has scheduled a 40th anniversary re-release of The Dictators Go Girl Crazy in November. Ignored on release, it has been recognized by Uncut Magazine as the album that kicked off American punk rock!
Sony will be going all out with a re-mastered version of the original record, unreleased songs, outtakes, instrumental tracks plus three remixes by super fan Andrew WK. I was initially skeptical about a re-mix but Andrew had a vision that convinced me. He added dynamics and color without changing the fun spirit of the original recordings. There will be a special 10” limited edition vinyl EP of the re-mixes released on Record Store Day, November 28.
This fall will also see the release of a new live recording of Johnny Thunders and The Heartbreakers recorded at The Village Gate in New York City in New York City. I served as associate producer helping to restore and edit the original cassette recordings.
Devoted Heartbreakers fans have long considered this show as the finest performance by this notoriously sloppy group. The CD is out on Cleopatra Records. You can read more about it on the Dangerous Minds website.
Give a listen to the new record by New England’s rock and roll saviors, The Connection. I produced it for King Yum Records and needless to say, it rocks most righteously. The title cut Labor of Love was selected as “The Coolest Song of The Week” on Little Steven’s Underground Garage radio show.
Dressy Bessy is a cool indie pop band from Denver featuring John Hill from Apples in Stereo and Tammy Ealom. They asked me to play bass on a track called Honey Bee which will be on their seventh CD,
KINGSIZED… available from Yep Roc Records, January 2016.
Finally I did a guest spot on my buddy Cody Melville’s duets CD. Check it out here.
The Next Big Thing
Lots of action with the song catalogue over the past few months…..
First, Twisted Sister perform my song, The Next Big Thing in the fascinating documentary, We Are Twisted Fuckin Sister. You don’t have to be a fan of the band to enjoy this film. It focuses on their early days packing the clubs on Long Island while they were completely ignored by the record industry. A study in determination and perseverance, the documentary ends the day they sign their first record deal.
Then enjoy my tune New York, New York in the trailer for the third season of Knife Fight. I never heard of the show until they approached me about my song … but I like their taste in music.
If you love gangsters and Norway (who doesn’t) you’re probably an avid fan of Lillyhammer, the hit Netflix TV show starring Steve Van Zandt. In the latest season, season three/episode seven to be exact – the Norwegian band The Dahlmanns perform a song I co-wrote I Love You Baby (but I hate your friends).
As a kid, I devoured every rock magazine I could get my hands on. I was as much a fan of the rock critics as the rock stars. Richard Meltzer, Lester Bangs and Nick Tosches were my favorites. I eventually started up my own fanzine Teenage Wasteland Gazette and joined them writing for the legendary Creem Magazine, so I’m really proud to be involved with Ticket to Write: The Golden Age of Rock Music Journalism. Still in production it will be a tribute to the age when rock and roll moved the culture… I was interviewed for the film that will include three of my tunes.
JAPAN
I just returned from my first Japanese tour. Tokyo was a glorious revelation. These days I tour as much for the food experience as the music and I fell big time for Ramen and Izakaya.
I played four shows, two acoustic and two electric. The electric shows were done Chuck Berry style. The promoter provided a band of Japanese players to back me up and though we only had one rehearsal Touch, Sa Wa and Greg rose to the occasion playing with precision and energy. The audiences also made my job easier by singing along with every chorus. Japanese fans are known for their intense passion for rock and roll but I was still surprised they could sing all my lyrics in English.
The main purpose was to celebrate and promote Teengenerate’s 20th anniversary. Teengenerate; Japan’s premiere punk band named themselves after a song I wrote and are being honored with concerts, a tribute record (kingrecords.co.jp) and a documentary – get-action.net! Thanks so much to Koji and Masao for bringing me over.
Here’s a picture of me with Fink and Fifi from Teengenerate:
NEW EP REPORT
I am pleased to announce the release of my new EP “On The First Day, Man Created God.” Four songs about the subject we dare not speak of in proper company; religion. This is not a topic for children my friends, this is punk rock for adults! I’ve been taking pot shots at American culture since the first Dictators album in 1975.
The sound may be less distorted and the tempos a bit slower but the bad attitude remains… here’s the story behind the songs.
Are You Ready To Rapture?
I’m from New York City where nobody actually believes Jesus will return to earth so I grew up completely unaware of the Rapture. As a kid I saw a few nut jobs in Times Square screaming about the end of the world but it’s different today. It’s not just the ranting of religious fanatics anymore, we have powerful people in government who gleefully anticipate the apocalypse …. and some want to be President. I find that very scary.
I had the phrase Jewish zombie rolling around my brain and wanted to incorporate it into a song, so I researched Christian eschatology extensively. It was very important to me that every line in the song reflected what these knuckleheads actually believe. I probably wrote 25 verses until I found the right combination of drama, truth and sarcasm.
…enjoy my video for the song as well.
Skeptical
What happens when lovers have different views on religion? … I conceived this song as a conversation between a couple where one is a skeptic and the other a believer. I imagine this would be awfully difficult to maneuver in real life so in a rare move, I dropped the sarcasm.
Fisher Of Men
I loved the phrase Fisher Of Men and thought it would be a good starting point for an empathetic song about an evangelical with doubts. The phrase comes from the New Testament (Matthew 4:19) and is a call for evangelicals to convert non-believers. If you sincerely believe in a literal bible I understand why you would want to convert your friends and family to save them from an eternity of torture. The question then arises, what would happen if you couldn’t “save” your brother? Is it possible to be happy in heaven if you know a loved one is burning in hell? …. If that was the case heaven would not paradise.
Get On Your Knees For Jesus
We’re back to sarcastic Andy on this one but delve beneath the surface and I think you will find serious lyrics about original sin, one of the most preposterous religious concepts I have ever heard …. Let me get this straight, we are all sinners because a talking snake convinced Adam and Eve to taste an apple from the tree of knowledge? I deserve punishment for the sins of someone else? Sorry I’m not buying.